Book Club with a Tea Tie-In

This is reminding me of a little girl I knew, growing up, from Russia. Her name was Galina. One evening I was invited to a Russian tea party at her home with her family. Since I loved tea even as a young girl, I was happy to be served tea at the party. Everyone was served tea in glasses. I was thrilled by this difference, since I always drank milky tea in mugs. The tea was black tea, without milk, and sweetened with sugar. I wish I could remember the food served: unfortunately I was a cautious eater back then and did not have a sense of culinary adventure, outside of tea!
I have a book called Tea by Sarina Jacobson. It is about tea being celebrated all over the world. Each chapter discusses tea from a certain country and suggests recipes for a tea party. The chapter Teatime in Russia has some mouthwatering recipes, such as spiced honey cake, blini and chocolate covered strawberries (which is why I searched for a TRoT selection featuring strawberries and chocolate). Since I can’t share the book with you all here, if you’d like to learn about about Russian culture in regards to tea, here’s a link you may enjoy. (And oh, now I want a Samovar! Santa?)http://www.russian-survey.com/culture-a-customs/43-traditional-russian-tea-party

Cavocorax, that’s a great question. What are people’s thoughts? My initial response is: read whatever edition you would like. I have ordered two copies, different editions, from my local library and I’ll do a bit of comparing.

Hmmm, I didn’t even think about this beforehand. I haven’t read the book before either, so I will probably just stick with the little paperwork edition that I have and hope it follows closely to the original. If anyone sees any major differences please feel free to recommend a specific edition for us to read!

I am reading the free kindle edition as well:) I have not looked to see how big the book is…right now I am in the middle of the hobbit, so when I finish that I will have to start. Thanks for the head’s up:)

Ooo, I wanted to reread the Hobbit again too! Are you planning to see the new film when it releases? They are doing a showing of all the LOTR movies at the theater too. I plan to go to ALL :) So excited!

Apparently it’s a husband/wife team that did the translation and the wife speaks Russian as a first language. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the other translations but I’m interested in checking this out (especially if I can find it for a cheaper price – I don’t care about the Oprah edition – I just want those translators.)

Serenity: I’m also excited about the next book too, whatever it is. How do you pick though?

Cavocorax, Miss SweeTea got an email about this pairing, if I’ve got that right? The Republic of Tea has also released tea in conjunction with The Number One Ladies Detective Series, so there’s another pairing to consider! But, I love all kinds of books and I would be happy to consider any suggestions. : )

Yes, I did get an email from TRoT about the Anna Karenina blend. They do several different movie or book related teas every year. I find their teas pretty good quality for the majority of them being in teabags. I love reading so I would be happy with any future book/tea pairings. :)

Russian tea cup? :: swooning:: In the tea book I mentioned in a previous post, there are lovely photographs of glasses set into decorative, metal holders for Russian tea drinking. They are so pretty! Oh, I wish we could all meet up at Samovar tea house in San Francisco! : )

I just wanted to update my previous post. I ended up going with the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky instead of going with the free one translated by Constance Garnett because of what I’d heard about the quality of their translation.

Also I found the ebook for $7.50 here if anyone is interested: http://amzn.to/UbcTTv.
If it was more than that I would have just gone with the free book, but I like that this edition also has a list of characters, footnotes, and a prologue to help me out. I tried to read Russian lit before and failed, so anything to help me keep things straight seems like an advantage!

This is definitely a good one for the ereader though. I saw my friend’s trade paperback version and decided I’d rather not carry that around. :D

As someone who has worked as an ASL/English interpreter, I have an absolute fascination with how words (written, spoken, signed) are translated, and the choices the translator(s) make. I look forward to hearing about the differences between editions: how various sentiments are expressed and translated and how that influences the shades of meaning.
Thank you, Cavocorax!

Hi Jason, yes, to all the Russian Caravans we can possibly taste! Please let us know what teas you enjoy while reading Anna Karenina, and if you’d like samples of either TRoT just let us know.

I am reading the one that has been “edited and Introduced by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova; The Constance Garrett Has Been Revised Throughout by the Editors; The Modern Library, New York; Stated First Modern Library Edition, September, 1965”
In reading the introduction, I was reassured that Garnett’s translation has been kept intact except in the case where she did not fully express Tolstoy’s intent (sounds like she made some things PG that were R rated, because of the time in which she worked). There were some more changes to reflect the Russian-ness of the original, in that Russian names were not anglicized, nor were terms relating to money, and quotes were restored to their original language, such as French, and so on, if I’m remembering correctly.

I am looking forward to hearing about some differences within translations; everyone is encouraged to enjoy whatever edition he or she has.

Let’s all try and complete our reading by January 25th and meet back here for discussion. Meantime, we all can write about what we are reading as we go along, if that strikes our fancy. Penguin has a reading group guide for this book and I thought it may provide a good jumping off point, if anyone is interested in that around Jan. 25th.

I just got Anna Karenina yesterday (Saturday); I had been waiting for it after I requested it at my local library and it finally arrived. I plan to start it tonight. I had to finish The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (which was aMAZing) first.